Panda Trek

On my two-day visit to San Diego a few weeks ago I leaned over a fence and caught a clear impression of the area, and I have to admit to being disappointed in this photo and the others that I've seen of the finished product. The takin yard has an ugly black fence in the background and doesn't seem to be much larger than their old enclosure, and the "mountain" is miniature and unsightly. The red panda exhibit is typical for the species, and the most impressive aspect of the area is the red and grey Panda Trek entrance sign! The other new habitat at the zoo (North Chinese leopard) is actually smaller than the old leopard exhibit but it does have some effective vertical height. Where is the innovation from arguably America's greatest zoo?

I have been asking this question in a number of ways for years on this site. I am amazed at how blinded otherwise well-informed and observant Zoochatters are by the stunning weather, vegetation and collection at this zoo, seemingly not noticing the crude, slapdash and just plain ugly exhibitry that has prevailed in San Diego for more than a decade.

To say the San Diego zoo has lost its way is an understatement. Talk about failing to live up to potential.....sad.

Rather over the top imo.

And Monkey Trails is a really good exhibit imo and that is within the past decade.

Sure, EO could have been much better and maybe this could have been too, but they're still improvements, at least in most people's eyes to a zoo that was already great.

I am 100% with Reduakari on this one. The San Diego Zoo is going downhill fast (I still maintain, despite some who defend it, that Elephant Odyssey is the biggest disaster in the history of zoos). Also, as many on this site agree, the demolition of the monorail at the wild animal park effectively ruined that facility's greatest asset.

If the board of directors at San Diego had any guts, they would fire all of the current senior management (at least those responsible for these fiascos) and bring in entirely new management capable of returning SD to its former glory.

Although I usually agree with Snowleopard's ratings, I have to disagree with his assessment of San Diego as #1 in America. Fifteen years ago probably, but not these days.

Let's review the past 20+years:
1986 Kopje exhibit (Jones and Jones)--excellent
1988 Tiger River (Jones and Jones)--excellent
1989 Sun Bear Forest ((Jones and Jones)--okay, but deteriorated quickly
1991 Gorilla tropics (in house)--good, but some poor sight lines and clunky details
1993 Bonobo Scripps Aviary remodel (in house)--good, but see above
1994 Australasian aviaries--boringly repetitive and almost unviewable due to mesh type used
1995 Hippo Beach--(in house)--good, but really bad sight lines, fencing etc
1996 Panda exhibit--mediocre
1997 Ituri Forest (in house)--terrible sight lines, awful rock work
1998 Polar Bear Plunge--getting worse
2000 Absolutely Apes--ugh
2004 Gharial exhibit--very nice
2005 Monkey Trails--pretty good, but weak wild pig exhibits
2009 Elephant Odyssey--one of the great disasters in zoo design history
2010 "re-branding", hideous repurposing of Elephant Mesa for high end Animal encounters"
2011 Panda Trek--hmmm

Not exactly an upward trajectory.....

I try not to comment too much on places I haven't seen in person but when I look at San Diego's exhibits I am consistently underwhelmed. I often ask myself how it would look if you lost the climate and foliage and I feel that in many cases you have something not very special at all. I really want to go there but I am more excited about going to other places first which I think are probably better zoos overall.

I think San Diego shows that bigger certainly doesn't mean better.

Hey I agree that they should be doing better than they are, but this list backs up my point that you were being over the top imo. Of course I like some of the exhibits you don't or think some exhibits that you hate are decent so that's a key difference between us. But of course that's a key difference between you and the vast majority of zoo visitors. You're extremely critical, which is fine, but your viewpoints are not a good representation of zoo visitors or even zoochatters. Most people even on here would be more positive about almost all of those exhibits.

I don't claim to speak for anyone but myself in these criticisms, but I know plenty of other people in the zoo profession who feel similarly, and at least two members of this forum agree with me as well. My frustration comes from the fact that San Diego has so many ingredients other zoos would die for--an equable climate, beautiful gardens, interesting topography, an astounding collection, great animal care staff and more money than god--but consistently fails to deliver exhibits at anywhere close to the level all the hype and notoriety would suggest it should. As the perceived (and self-proclaimed) "best zoo in the world" San Diego should do better.

Once again, I agree that they can and should do better. I am not arguing with you there at all. I just think you were quite over the top in your first post and your comments in the exhibit list post are also over the top in my opinion. For example, Snowleopard, who is more critical than most, has very contrasting reviews of those exhibits.

And to say that everyone who disagrees with you is being blinded is also over the top.

Collection is a huge element of a zoo too, so why shouldn't people strongly consider that?

And why shouldn't they consider the weather? It may be unfair to so, but it is an important factor for both the visitors and the animals. I believe your favorite zoo is the Bronx Zoo, which has many animals in indoor holdings during the winter and many animals indoors all the time. Usually in good to great indoor complexes, but I'll take Monkey Trails over Jungle World in part due to the indoor/outdoor factor.

Post #6 on this thread is so absolutely dead on, it is eery. I really would not have worded one single thing differently if I had written it myself.

Maybe we are a bit overly critical of San Diego due to their reputation, but when they refuse to refer to themselves as simply San Diego Zoo and insist on referring to themselves as "The World Famous San Diego Zoo" they are just asking for a stricter standard of judgement IMO.